You Had Me at Hola(43)

And besides. No rebounds. She’d promised herself and her cousins.

If she went back on it now, Ava and Michelle would never let her live it down.

Crushes were fleeting. Family teasing was forever.





Chapter 20


CARMEN IN CHARGE



EPISODE 6

Scene: Victor attends a charity event for an animal shelter.

INT: Elementary school gymnasium—DAY

“You did well with the kids,” Carmen said.

“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Victor replied, feeling a little wounded. “I’m not a monster.”

“It’s not that.” She straightened a stack of pamphlets for the animal shelter. “I just . . . didn’t think you liked kids.”

“I do.” He got the sense she wasn’t talking about the kids at the children’s hospital they’d visited earlier in the episode. He could pretend not to know what she meant, or he could cut to the chase. They’d done enough pretending while they were married. “You’re wondering why we didn’t have kids.”

She crossed her arms, hugging herself, and turned away from him so he couldn’t see her face. “We never even talked about it.”

“I . . .” It was time for honesty. “I didn’t think you wanted them.”

She spun back to him then, and there was a wealth of emotion in her dark eyes. “Why would you think that?”

He shrugged as old hurts rose from where he’d buried them long ago. “You made it clear that your career came first. Serrano PR was your family legacy.”

“But you didn’t ask.”

He sighed. “No. I didn’t. But neither did you.” He said it gently, without censure. They’d both made mistakes.

“This feels years too late, but . . . did you want children, Victor?”

He looked over at the animals penned in their play areas. “Sí, Carmencita. I wanted children with you. Eventually. But we didn’t get there.”

When she didn’t yell at him for using the diminutive of her name, he took it as a sign of progress.

“We didn’t get to a lot of places,” she said softly, then checked her watch. “They’re about to open the doors. Are you ready?”

Victor steeled himself, ignoring the barks and meows coming from behind him. “As I’ll ever be.”

The doors opened and a crowd rushed into the gymnasium, shoes squeaking on the waxed floors and murmurs echoing around the space.

From his spot in front of the photo backdrop emblazoned with the animal shelter’s logo, Victor smiled and signed autographs and posed for pictures as Carmen handed him one puppy or kitten after another.

His fingers were nipped by needle-pointed puppy teeth, his jacket was scratched by razor-sharp kitten claws, and he was nearly peed on—twice. But he suffered through it, charming the people who were there to help him improve his public image.

Even as his allergies started to kick in.

He tried not to sniffle too loudly as Carmen gave him three kittens to hold up near his face, but he was fighting a losing battle, despite the meds he’d downed that morning.

And then they brought out Luther.

Luther was a five-foot-long female ball python whose name was actually Lucy.

The script didn’t say that Victor was afraid of snakes. And if you asked him, he wouldn’t have said he was.

But he wasn’t overly fond of them either. And he had never in his life wanted to hold one.

“Here comes Luther,” Carmen called in a singsong voice. The children assembled around Victor cheered. The parents oohed and ahhed.

And Victor was very nearly about to break character.

Cálmate, cabrón, he told himself. You’re an international superstar. You’ve played sold-out shows all over the world, in the biggest venues. This is just one harmless snake!

The snake, still in its handler’s arms, eyed him impassively.

Victor’s armpits began to sweat.

The snake came closer.

Swallowing hard, Victor raised his arms, tensed all his muscles, and let them hand him the python.

The kids crowded around him. He smiled for the camera.

The snake shifted its weight. Victor’s arms trembled from the stress. And then . . .

His nose started to tickle.

“Three . . .” the photographer counted down. “Two . . .”

On “one,” Victor sneezed, nearly dropping Luther. Reflexively, his arms clenched, gathering the snake close to his chest. Luther—Lucy—whatever—slithered its head over his shoulder and around the back of his neck.

Victor froze. Fuck. This.

“Somebody take this snake!” he shouted.

“Cut!”





Chapter 21


Ashton’s eyes itched, his nose ran, and if he never heard “Somebody take this snake!” again in his life, it would be too soon. Worse, the director had loved it and decided to keep it for the final cut.

Between the children and the animals, Ashton’s sneezing, and everyone breaking character left and right, the animal charity event required the most takes of any scene they’d filmed yet. By the end, people were already talking about the blooper reel, and Ashton’s allergies were in full swing, but he had to admit, he was having fun. So when Jasmine told him the cast was going out for karaoke that night, he surprised them all by saying yes.